A known roof apparatus for a vehicle is disclosed in JP2011-5960A (hereinafter referred to as Patent reference 1). According to the known roof apparatus disclosed in Patent reference 1, a sunshade for adjusting light transmission at an opening portion formed at a roof portion of the vehicle is configured to be opened in association with an opening operation of a movable panel for opening/closing the opening portion. As illustrated in FIG. 8, the known roof apparatus disclosed in Patent reference 1 is provided with an interlocking mechanism 93 for performing opening/closing operations of a sunshade panel 92 in mechanically association with or interlocked with opening/closing operations of a movable panel 91. That is, the interlocking mechanism 93 includes a first engaging member 94 and a second engaging member 95 which are provided at the movable panel 91, and a first engaged member 96 and a second engaged member 97 which are provided at the sunshade panel 92 and engaging with the first engaging member 94 and the second engaging member 95 in a vertical direction, respectively.
For example, in a case where the movable panel 91 performs the opening operation, when the movable panel 91 in a tilt-up state moves rearward, the first engaging member 94 presses the first engaged member 96, and thus the sunshade panel 92 performs the opening operation in association with the opening operation of the movable panel 91.
According to Patent reference 1, however, the first engaging member 94 provided at the movable panel 91 hangs or protrudes downwardly substantially directly beneath a mounting portion at which the first engaging member 94 is mounted on the movable panel 91. Thus, in a case where, for example, the movable panel 91 performs a tilt-up movement from a fully closed state, a lower end of the first engaging member 94 pivots or swings so as to come closer to the first engaged member 96 in association with the tilt-up movement of the movable panel 91. As a result, the first engaged member 96 is pressed and the sunshade panel 92 may possibly move in response thereto.
A need thus exists for a roof apparatus for a vehicle, which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.